Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) top officials including Chief Elections Officer Willie Kalonga, have been sent on forced leave to pave the way for investigations into allegations of financial abuse.

This comes barely days after MEC Chairperson, Justice Maxon Mbendera died when he was having a meeting with others
officials at the Auditor Generals office.

Confirming the suspension of the top seven officials, MEC’s Chairperson Of Finance and Administration Committe Linda Kunje said that the leave was with immediate effect from Thursday.

”This has been necessitated in order to pave way for the Audit Team set up to review the
audit responses presented by the
Commission to be able to do its work without any undue influence,” said Kunje.

The suspended commissioners are Chief Elections Officer Willie Kalonga and his Deputy Harris Potani, Director Of Administration and Human Resource George Khaki , Khumbo Phiri who is Director of Finance.

According to Kunje, the Audit team will complete its work within a short period and the Commission will at that point make known to the public the outcome of the review and the action that it will take.

The Commission also assured stakeholders that it is committed to ensure that its operations adhere to all legal, public and international standards hence the need for engaging independent Audit team.

It is suspected that over MK15 million of tax payers money were abused at Malawi Electoral Commission.